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The past lies buried...

Alastair Stone isn't proud of the dark deeds of his family's past, but he thought they were just that—past.

But when a routine renovation of his ancestral home releases a horde of angry spirits bent on vengeance against anyone of his blood, he soon learns that his family's horrific acts were even worse than he ever could have imagined.

Driven from his home, Stone must rally his most trusted friends and allies to discover the truth and find a way to exorcise the relentless spirits.

But the spirits aren't the only threats unearthed. A powerful enemy from the past—one with forbidden and unspeakable powers—also has a vendetta against the Stone family.

And that doesn't even count the mysterious fiend in the sealed room...

Stone has bested many monstrous enemies in his magical career—but is he strong enough to fight his own past?

466 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2019

160 people are currently reading
62 people want to read

About the author

R.L. King

68 books332 followers
R. L. King is the author of the Amazon-bestselling urban fantasy series The Alastair Stone Chronicles.

When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, she works as a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company.

She also freelances for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun, where she's contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks and one full-length adventure, "On the Run," which was included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning "Runners' Toolkit."

Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, "Borrowed Time," was published in Spring 2015. She's working on her second Shadowrun novel, "Veiled Extraction," which will be released in late 2016 or early 2017.

When not writing or working, she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, and watching way too much Doctor Who.

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5 stars
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131 (26%)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Kat Lebo.
855 reviews15 followers
June 11, 2019
House of Stone: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel, Book 18
by R.L. Stone

Great addition to the Alastair Stone Chronicles. This book is action, beginning to end. Fantastic plotting, excellent proofing and editing, consistent yet growing characters, with believable situations, dialogue and emotional input make this one of my favorite books of the series. It would be difficult to write a summary without some spoilers so I won't be doing that.

Liked seeing everyone at the Surrey House, loved adding to Stone's backstory, and was delighted to see movement in the relationship between Alastair and Ian. Thought the interesting two twists at the end were amazing. In fact, the only thing I didn't like was that those two twists act almost like a cliffhanger style ending, which I abhor. However, I decided that a reader could walk away from the end of this book, knowing there are adventures to come, and in what direction those adventures might go based on said ending, and still feel like they'd reached a decent closure with the series as a whole -- so I didn't hold the ending against the book.

And yes, I am anxiously awaiting book 19, due out fall of 2019.
Profile Image for Beverly.
299 reviews
June 12, 2019
Very good read

Overall, a good Alastair Stone story about some problems he has dealing with spirits inhabiting his ancestral home, and worse the revelation of why they are there.

What I didn't like. Stone and friends failed to show their intelligence and some simple common sense, when they came up with the solutions to get rid of a vengeful evil spirit and the spirits who were victims of his ancestors. A deranged spirit tells him to do something and he doesn't think about it being trap? After 41 spirits are not affected when their physical remains are destroyed, 5 intelligent images and 1 smart mundane think they can get rid of one mad spirit by destroying it's body?

The end of the story leaves us with two new interesting problems for the future of Alastair Stone.
Profile Image for Linda.
582 reviews
June 27, 2019
OMG this is the best book ever! You can always expect King's books to have some really creepy evil and you won't be disappointed in this book. But fun evil situations, I laughed hard over the skeleton attack. Stone's character grows stronger and all the characters grow closer. Alastair's heart felt sorrow at the tragedy done to others is very touching. King writes the whole gambit of emotions in this book. Awesome This next book is going to have some truly bad evils.
20 reviews
September 3, 2019
The best yet

After reading all of Alastair Stone's books so far, I thoroughly enjoyed this one the best. I loved that he finally worked with all his friends against some terrible foes. Apart from one understandable drunken pity fest. Stone's relationship with his son is finally moving on, and it was good to see Jason and Verity fighting along side him again. I can't wait for the 19th book, this Autumn.
Profile Image for Richard.
191 reviews
September 20, 2020
Roller Coaster

What a great story. Stone is continuing his renovations on his family home and his family history comes back to haunt him. All of our favorite characters are here and a couple more that we don’t see to often. The story has a couple of twists and turns and does a great job of keeping you enthralled. Well worth the read.
24 reviews
July 4, 2023
Interesting characters

His storylines are pretty decent, but his grammar errors and misspelling of words make them not flow. You have to reread lines because of it. He also changes things and makes an intelligent character say and do stupid things or not make connections that are easily discernible.
Profile Image for William M Hord III.
7 reviews
June 7, 2019
RL King Does it again - only better in House of Stone

I knew it would be good but this exceeded my expectations! Alistair’s world gets rocked and he actually has to accept that he’s not alone in this world. Get to see more of his crew in action as a bonus!
Profile Image for Diana.
47 reviews
June 8, 2019
Wonderful

This is the best book yet! I love that Ian’s character is filling out. Alistairs family is a bit “buggered” but .......wow. I recommend this book to anyone that loves a story with more plot twists and surprises.
Profile Image for Stacy Floyd.
99 reviews
June 8, 2019
Nailed it!

R.L. King does it again...this series of books just keeps getting better and better! She writes with British humor and wit...The characters are so well developed...The stories are funny, scary,and awesome always!
21 reviews
June 9, 2019
Amazing read

Just WOW, what an amazing read. It was holding your breath exciting. The fast pace kept you captivated and it was almost impossible to put down. Id recommend this book, try it and you’ll join the growing army of Stone junkies.
Profile Image for Wendy Schindler.
362 reviews
June 12, 2019
Pure Excellence!!

Wow! Just WOW!
This one blew me away, mostly toward the end, though it was great from start to finish!
Dark Intrigues..Ghosts..Startling Family Secrets.. These are a few of my favorite things!
Can't wait to see where the author takes us next!
Profile Image for Cynthia Morrison.
20 reviews
June 13, 2019
Omg

It's been a while since I've been on the edge of my seat the entire time. I can't wait for the next one. The characters are so real, you almost forget you don't actually know them.
Profile Image for Cynon John Joness.
33 reviews1 follower
June 13, 2019
Another winner

Well another amazing success by r l king I could not put down the house of stone it was bloody amazing really looking forward to book 19 if you love magic then these are the books for you
Thanks again r l king
Profile Image for Ryan.
12 reviews
June 16, 2019
Another excellent addition

This is another great addition that expands Stones history and albeit briefly provides another glimpse into Stefan's past and how old had truly might be. A great read and I cannot wait for the next addition.
Profile Image for Rachel.
978 reviews63 followers
June 27, 2019
Scary and awesome!

This one seemed to call back to the series’ beginnings as a horror themed novel. It was scary enough that I had to read parts of it during the day. But it introduced a bunch of new, interesting characters and story lines!
61 reviews2 followers
August 29, 2019
A fine installment

As more past is revealed we see more that the fleshed out Stone lives in a larger world and a power that, at first, seemed towering is a small piece in a tapestry stretching back hundreds of years.

A good read and I very much look forward to the next
Profile Image for Jamille Twedt.
51 reviews1 follower
March 16, 2020
Surprised once again

It's amazing how R L King comes up with greater story lines with each Stone adventure. He possesses an extraordinary imagination that never disappoints. Thus novel is filled with exciting twists and turns bringing new dimensions to Stone's world.
136 reviews
November 27, 2020
Great book

This series is one of my favorites. They're well written with a great cast of characters and the story line is always imaginative and well constructed. Very enjoyable reads.
297 reviews1 follower
February 2, 2022
Ok

Not one the better ones. I was glad when it was over I found it annoying. For Stone to carry so much gilt because of horrible things his ancestors did 300 years ago was ridiculous and unbelievable. Regretably its looks like King is continuing the story. I might skip it
59 reviews
April 8, 2024
Alistair Stone at his fonest

Alistair Stone with the aid of odd collection of friends and allies rises to the challenge of facing his ancestors' past misdeeds snd arcane madness in s a thirst for power..
Profile Image for Diane Stevenson.
66 reviews
June 9, 2019
Brilliant!!

Best book yet, in this series. Spooky things are afoot in Stone's ancestral home. No spoilers but an exciting story unfurls!!!
321 reviews5 followers
June 10, 2019
Awesome

Another great story from a really great author. What a wild ride and set up for future stories. Can't wait.
14 reviews1 follower
July 8, 2019
The best Alistair Stone yet!

This is the best book.I'm the series yet. There is almost non stop action. With an excellent storyline and amazing detail
Profile Image for Heather.
108 reviews28 followers
July 15, 2019
Excellent continuation

Excellent continuation of story. The writing was great and kept me turning the pages. Looking forward to the next one.
Profile Image for Lybo Buchanan.
259 reviews1 follower
April 18, 2021
Alastair returns to England to attend his former fiance's wedding. He takes his son, Ian, with him since Verity had to canx last minute to handle a kidnapped child. Renovations are being done on the house, when an underground chamber is discovered. It appears that human sacrifices were conducted there. And they discovered something else. However, Alastair is late for the wedding & does not have any more time to look. Ian chooses to stay at the house while Alaister attends the wedding. But Alaister makes Ian swear to not go anywhere near the chambers. However, something goes dreadfully wrong at the house while Alastair is gone. With the help of his son Ian, & his close friends, Verity, Jason, Eddie, Ward, & even his faithful Servant Alfred, plus Poppy, a medium friend of Eddie's, they set out to resolve the problem created by the horrors of Stone's ancesters a very long time ago. Horrors of which Alastair is being held accountable for. What they did not expect was to butt heads with a powerful force that would take all their strength just to hold it at bay until they could escape.
147 reviews
November 28, 2020
Loved this book, the series is getting better and better. Keep up the good work R.L. King I am your devoted fan.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

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